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What We Look For In Applicants At Indiahikes

What We Look For In Applicants At Indiahikes

Category Working With Indiahikes About Indiahikes

By Swathi Chatrapathy

2019-02-04

At Indiahikes, we have our vision clear — we want to try and define the future of trekking in India. Over the past ten years, we have been working towards that vision. I know if Indiahikes did not exist, trekking would have been vastly different.

While we are moving towards this vision, there’s always a roadblock that holds us back. That’s finding the right people.

From our beginnings until now, many talented folks are no longer with us. They were all incredibly skilled and intelligent no doubt; but somehow, their thoughts didn’t match ours. I must admit we have sometimes taken years to understand that our paths didn’t cross. The signs were obvious in front of us, but we just didn’t notice.

This is where our struggle is.

So I thought I would put down the kind of people we are looking for hoping that you may know someone who could fit the part.

You’ll notice I am not going to put down any skill or experience, but reflect more on the kind of person we are looking at. In the past ten years, through our ups and downs, we have noticed that these traits are far more important than any skills or experience.

We have seen what works for us are those who are:

Humble

We find this to be the most important quality in anyone at Indiahikes. Our founders, our chief of operations, our Trek Leaders, our mountain staff, they’re all incredibly humble. They believe that the people around them add value to them. They are obsessed with growing those around them. They constantly ask questions from those around them.

We notice that humble people are on a perpetual learning mode, they accept feedback gracefully and work on it. This is a quality that merges beautifully with the trekking world that we work in.

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Eager to work

There’s a difference between just working and being eager to work. We are looking for the latter. And we have seen that such people thrive at Indiahikes and climb up the ladder quickly!

When I talk about eager to work, it incorporates a lot of things — an innate desire to work and learn (no matter what level of work), a willingness to look beyond the clock, a readiness to make Indiahikes a part of their lives.

We believe there’s a clear distinction between a job and work. A job is something you do for a paycheque. Work is something you do to add meaning to your life. The latter is deeply ingrained at Indiahikes.

This is because at Indiahikes, we’re doing work that has an impact on the larger trekking community. We are trying to define the future of trekking. We want to work with those who understand the weight of this responsibility.

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Smart with people

Relationships are a big part of Indiahikes. We work with different kinds of people — sometimes with CEO’s of other organisations, the government, forest departments, trekkers from different walks of life, mountain staff who belong to villages around our base camps, school principals, directors and deans of colleges. And often, you might find that the same person from Indiahikes has to interact with this entire gamut of people, all in a day.

At Indiahikes there’s a very thin line between a professional relationship and a personal relationship. We need someone who understands that our work is our life and our life is our work. We don’t see any difference.

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These are the three basic qualities we look for in our candidates at Indiahikes.

How can you help?

I know you’re probably scoffing at me because I’m looking for an ideal human being. But even if our candidates score 7 on 10 in these three regions, and align themselves with our vision to define the future of trekking, we’ll be happy to take him on board and mould him.

I know it would make his / her life extremely meaningful, as it has with mine.

If you know anybody who would fit the bill, this is the link to our careers page – https://www.indiahikes.com/careers/

You’ll find the roles we have and the procedure to apply on the same page.

PS: There is a perception that working at Indiahikes is synonymous with being in the mountains. It is true we go the mountains often, but it is not always that we are sitting there! We also have a finance team, an ops team, a content team and more. We are looking for people to join us in this work. Check our openings here.

 

What you should do now…

1. If you would like to see our available roles, click here.

2. To see a video on what it’s like to work at Indiahikes, click here.

3. To read about our Trek Leaders, head over to this page.

4. If you ended up here by chance and were actually looking for treks to do, see our upcoming treks here.

5. To download a free guide on the 13 Best Treks of India, click here.

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Swathi Chatrapathy

Chief Editor

About the author

Swathi Chatrapathy heads the digital content team at Indiahikes. She is also the face behind India's popular trekking video channel, Trek With Swathi. Unknown to many, Swathi also writes a weekly column at Indiahikes which has more than 100,000 followers.

A TEDx speaker and a frequent guest at other events, Swathi is a much sought after resource for her expertise in digital content.

Before joining Indiahikes, Swathi worked as a reporter and sub-editor at a daily newspaper. She holds a Masters's in Digital Journalism and continues to contribute to publications. Trekking, to her, is a sport that liberates the mind more than anything else. Through trekking, Swathi hopes to bring about a profound impact on a person's mind, body and spirit.

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